Empaths
by anoriel-rose
Summary: Robin talks about empaths and how utterly annoying they can be sometimes.


Written off the word "phenomenon" for a 15-min Teen Titans fanfiction community over at LiveJournal. It took a little longer than 15 min, but... yeah... hope you like! ;P

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Empaths: people who have the ability to sense emotion and often take it onto themselves. Raven is one of these people. She senses emotions whether they're concealed or suppressed or not. That's why it's sometimes difficult to live with her. She knows everything about what I feel; it's a little unnerving to think about.

Take last week for an example. I came into the ops room for some water, minding my own business, but thinking about something that had happened that morning that I wasn't too happy about. And the very first thing she did was look up at me and say, "So what's bothering you, Robin?"

Keep in mind, I hadn't said a word to her, and yet she knew _exactly _what I was feeling: frustrated. Ruffled. Even angry-- and she actually understood despite the normal appearance I was putting on.

Well, I wasn't going to lie to her. But I didn't really want to get into the problem, either. "A supernova," I replied simply, grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly, no doubt tuning her powers onto my brain to figure out exactly what I meant. Raven's great with emotions, but luckily for me, I can still pull specific thoughts over her. Why name off a seemingly unrelated celestial phenomenon? Well, define the word and you might understand:

"Star blew up at me."

It hadn't been a... _horrible _fight, but ever since Starfire became more familiar with me as a peer instead of just a leader, she seemed to enjoy making up her _own _mind concerning things that I happen to have strong opinions about. And our opinions aren't always the same. I respect her, but sometimes she's just wrong. _Dead. _Wrong.

"Mmm," replied Raven, eyes turning back to her book with something of a smile on her face.

I looked harder at her. The way she voiced that little hum... something about it wasn't right. There was too much intonation put in it to be just taken at face value, indicating that from that one noise, I was supposed to gather some deeper piece of information about her that I would be blamed for not figuring out later if I missed it.

That's just one example of her empathy causing me problems: she can figure out what _I'm _thinking, but I can't figure out what _she's_ thinking. People -especially women- think that I somehow have a sixth sense that enables me to take pitch changes, body language, and glances to create an entirely different idea than what they're actually saying. And I can do it. It's not impossible for me. I just don't see why they _like _being constantly mysterious: I don't really enjoy having to work for answers _all _the time.

Only with a person like Raven, she knows my methods. She knows what I look for when I'm trying to figure someone out, so she deliberately thwarts my attempts. It must be fun for her or something. Obviously being subtle and observant wasn't going to help me in this case, so I went for the blunt, straight-forward approach.

"Mmm?" I mimicked her, raising and lowering my pitch to match hers. "What's "mmm" mean?"

She smirked up at me, then raised her shoulders in a lazy shrug.

Okay... this was starting to get on my nerves. Shrugging generally means "I don't know" in America, but it was more than obvious by the smirk on her face that she _did_ know yet found it entertaining to not tell me. I'm serious when I say that in this way, men are _far_ superior to women. Girls are just so annoyingly subtle. Men actually tell you what they mean, or they make it obvious enough for you to figure it out so you don't have to spend valuable time picking through hints and clues that you're expected to catch onto.

She looked back down at her book. "It was bound to happen-- you and Starfire are very different."

...that was actually blunt. Well, obviously, she must have used her powers again to figure out what I was thinking. At least this time she was being slightly helpful.

"So why does that earn a smile?" I asked, unscrewing the cap of my water. I'd taken note of her facial expression. That should earn me _some _sort of response.

But no. She just shrugged again. Why all the shrugging? She _obviously_ knew what she meant, otherwise she wouldn't be giving off so many hints. So what was I supposed to determine from the fact that she smiled when I said that Star blew up at me? That my subtle humor in "supernova" was understood? That she liked seeing me frustrated? That she was _glad_ my friendship with Starfire had hit a bump?

I gave her a slightly annoyed look. If _I_ was expected to determine her mood from a small gesture, than she should definitely be able to figure out what an "annoyed" face looked like. "I don't think having a fight with one of my best friends is a thing to smile about, Raven," I said, setting the bottle cap on the table.

Her smirk fell slightly, and she turned back to her book. "I never said it was," she replied, another unusual pitch change dancing across her voice. Did I miss the hint or something? Was she offended? Disappointed? ...Amused? Augh, women can be such _pains_ sometimes. Especially empathic ones who know what you're thinking. She could just be nice and tell me what was really going on in that labyrinth of a mind of hers for once.

She looked back up at me after a moment, probably sensing my frustration at her elusive behavior. She sighed and dropped her eyelids slightly. Okay, I knew that expression: that was the, "Robin, take a hint" or the "don't you get it, Robin?" look. And obviously the answer was no, I didn't get it, because I was standing right there without any idea as to what she meant.

"Robin." She closed her book with a sigh, lowering her head into her hand as if she'd been trying for eternity to communicate this one thing to me, and I still just wasn't getting it. "_Think _about it for a minute. _Why_ would I smile to hear you say that had a fight with Starfire?"

Oh, so _now_ she was being up-front. "...because you think we're bad for each other?"

"Yes, Robin. And _why_ would I think that?"

"... I don't know?"

She gave me a strange look, another one of those looks that _had_ to have a deeper meaning. "Because I think there's someone _else _who would be better for you," she said, smiling a little.

I blinked. Well, that was interesting... I never knew Raven had a matchmaking side in her, especially concerning _me_. Who in the world would she think I would go well with? She never really liked my spending time with _any _one girl in particular. "What do you mean?" I asked, giving her another slightly confused look.

She almost glared. She _almost _glared-- I could see the annoyance on her face from across the room. But why in the world would she be annoyed with me? Was I just _completely _oblivious to this oh-so-obvious relationship I was supposed to be in? It wasn't Terra. It wasn't Starfire either, obviously. And every other candidate I could think of either lived miles away, or was with someone else already.

She sighed and dropped her arm across her knee. "Do you _really_ not understand, Robin, or are you just playing with me?"

...okay, _what_? No, I really _didn't_ understand, and why would I play about something like that? Relationships _are_ important, especially the romantic kind. What made her think I'd get something like that and pretend not to?

She stood up with a slight sigh and walked over towards me. Taking the water bottle out of my hand, she set it on the counter. "You're clueless, aren't you?"

I notched an eyebrow, unsure whether to agree or not. She snickered. Why did she snicker? What did she find so funny? Was it really that hilarious to see me fail at figuring something out?

"Okay," she said with a doting sigh. "I'll tell you plain and simple, just like you like it. Read my lips, Robin..."

She grabbed my face with both hands, pulled me forward, and... sorta... well, I kinda read her lips. I swear I didn't start it though. It was _her_ idea.

So to make a long story short, empaths are really confusing, sort of annoying to try to figure out, and (as I discovered from her _not-_so-subtle gesture) a pretty impulsive bunch sometimes. But I guess I don't mind them too much. In fact, all in all... I kind of like them.


End file.
